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Goldsboro Books

978-1668046388

A Very Private School

A Very Private School

by Charles Spencer

Publisher William Collins

Genre: Non-Fiction

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About the book

In this poignant memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the trauma of being sent away from home at age eight to attend a boarding school.

A Very Private School offers a clear-eyed, firsthand account of a culture of cruelty at the school Spencer attended in his youth and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding system. Drawing on the memories of many of his schoolboy contemporaries, as well as his own letters and diaries from the time, he reflects on the hopelessness and abandonment he felt aged eight, viscerally describing the intense pain of homesickness and the appalling inescapability of it all. Exploring the long-lasting impact of his experiences, Spencer presents a candid reckoning with his past and a reclamation of his childhood.

About the Author

Charles Spencer

Charles Spencer was awarded an MA in Modern History from Magdalen College, Oxford University. He worked for the American TV network NBC News for a decade from 1986, as an on-air correspondent, and wrote his own scripts for his pieces for the TODAY Show.

Charles Spencer has since presented for the History Channel, and has been interviewed in his capacity as an expert historian on several occasions by the BBC, most recently in the BBC4 three part series Charles I: Downfall of a King.

From TV it has been a short stroll to writing books. Althorp: the Story of an English House was the first (published in 1998), followed by The Spencer Family (called The Spencers in the USA), Blenheim: Battle for Europe (a Sunday Times bestseller, which was shortlisted for ‘History Book of the Year’ in the 2005 National Book Awards), Prince Rupert: the Last Cavalier, Killers of the King (a Sunday Times bestseller), and To Catch A King (a London Times bestseller).

Charles Spencer has written articles for Vanity Fair, the Spectator, the Sunday Telegraph, the Guardian, and has reviewed books for many publications, including the Mail on Sunday, and the Financial Times.

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